Blue Delphinium

So, today is Friday, but a florist's work is never done. The shop is open on Saturday, and even on Sunday there is funeral work to be finished, and then delivered. During the summer, you can never tell what working at the flower shop will be like. One day the phone hardly rings at all and the next day can be like a holiday with the phone ringing off the hook and people coming in left and right. The last two days have been busy ones after a week of near silence. We had an order for a small wedding today, just one bridal bouquet and one boutonnière. The bouquet was made up of exquisite white roses and blue delphinium with a smattering of green hydrangea. One of my favorite summer flowers is the blue delphinium or larkspur. It is a tall flower with many blossoms that convey an open heart and light spirit. They are the flower of July births. People who like wildflower arrangements really like these light flowers.

I was thinking all day about what a dirty job it is in the florist business. It is not always just about pretty flower arranging. Sometimes to get to that place, there are flowers to be cleaned, and today was a day for cleaning flowers. I stripped leaves off of five buckets of carnations, and then it was on to the roses. There were seven or eight bunches of roses to be cleaned. Thorns and most of the leaves need to be stripped of using a large tweezer-like device known as the "rose stripper". I left that shop today feeling so sweaty and cruddy with bits of debris on my shirt and arms. As I was leaving I saw the bride pulling up to pick up her pretty bouquet. She had her hair done and her veil on, and all I could think about what was how different her day must have been from mine! I silently wished her luck on her special day, and headed off.